Animals 2016, 6(8), 48; doi:10.3390/ani6080048
Dingoes at the Doorstep: Home Range Sizes and Activity Patterns of Dingoes and Other Wild Dogs around Urban Areas of North-Eastern Australia
1
School of Agriculture and Food Sciences, The University of Queensland, Gatton, Queensland 4343, Australia
2
FeralsOut, Kippa-Ring, Queensland 4021, Australia
3
Robert Wicks Pest Animal Research Centre, Biosecurity Queensland, Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, Toowoomba, Queensland 4350, Australia
4
Institute for Agriculture and the Environment, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Queensland 4350, Australia
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Academic Editor: Darryl Jones
Received: 29 April 2016 / Revised: 14 June 2016 / Accepted: 11 August 2016 / Published: 16 August 2016
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wildlife-human interactions in urban landscapes)
Abstract
Top-predators around the world are becoming increasingly intertwined with humans, sometimes causing conflict and increasing safety risks in urban areas. In Australia, dingoes and dingo×domesticdoghybridsarecommoninmanyurbanareas,andposeavarietyofhumanhealth and safety risks. However, data on urban dingo ecology is scant. We GPS-collared 37 dingoes in north-easternAustraliaandcontinuouslymonitoredthemeach30minfor11–394days. Mostdingoes were nocturnal, with an overall mean home range size of 17.47 km2. Overall mean daily distance travelled was 6.86 km/day. At all times dingoes were within 1000 m of houses and buildings. Home ranges appeared to be constrained to patches of suitable vegetation fragments within and around human habitation. These data can be used to reallocate dingo management effort towards mitigating actual conflicts between humans and dingoes in urban areas. View Full-TextKeywords:
adaptive kernel; Canis lupus dingo; habitat use; human–carnivore conflict; predator management; stray dog; urban ecology
▼
Figures
Figure 1
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. (CC BY 4.0).
Scifeed alert for new publications
Never miss any articles matching your research from any publisher- Get alerts for new papers matching your research
- Find out the new papers from selected authors
- Updated daily for 49'000+ journals and 6000+ publishers
- Define your Scifeed now
Share & Cite This Article
MDPI and ACS Style
McNeill, A.T.; Leung, L.K.-P.; Goullet, M.S.; Gentle, M.N.; Allen, B.L. Dingoes at the Doorstep: Home Range Sizes and Activity Patterns of Dingoes and Other Wild Dogs around Urban Areas of North-Eastern Australia. Animals 2016, 6, 48.
Note that from the first issue of 2016, MDPI journals use article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.
